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NASCAR postpones Xfinity Series season opener at Daytona

nbcnewsla.com February 18, 2024

Bob Pockrass

FOX NASCAR Insider

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Steady rain forced NASCAR to postpone the Xfinity Series season opener from Saturday night to Monday at Daytona International Speedway.

The 120-lap, 300-mile race will begin at 11 a.m. ET on Monday on FS1.

The Daytona 500, NASCAR’s biggest event, is still scheduled for Sunday afternoon on FOX with a 2:30 p.m. ET listed start and a 3:11 p.m. projected green flag. Heavy rain threatens the race Sunday, with FOX Weather forecasting a 70-90 percent chance of rain throughout the day and into the evening.

NASCAR would need a window of more than five hours with no rain in order to dry the track and complete the event. With temperatures in the 50s, track drying could take longer than the typical 90-120 minutes. The race takes over three hours to run to the finish, although if the race is at or past the halfway point (100 laps, 250 miles), the race would be official if rains preclude NASCAR from finishing the event to its scheduled completion.

[Related: Ranking 2024 Daytona 500 field 1-40: From Denny Hamlin to Anthony Alfredo]

With the rescheduled time for Xfinity on Monday, that indicates the Daytona 500, if postponed, would run Monday following the Xfinity race with a start time still to be finalized.

NASCAR has 30 custom-made vehicles on-site to dry the track with a mix of custom-built high-pressure air systems that blow standing water off the track and then dryers and blowers that use heated jet fuel to finish the drying process.

Team Penske’s Joey Logano is on the pole for the Daytona 500. Richard Childress Racing’s Jesse Love is on the pole for the Xfinity Series race.

NASCAR also canceled the final practice Saturday for the Daytona 500 because of rain, but typically only a handful of teams go out in that session as they want to make sure nothing happens to their primary car for the Daytona 500. With the session canceled, NASCAR has already done its Daytona 500 prerace technical inspection. There were no issues.

The ARCA race, originally scheduled for Saturday afternoon, was previously moved to late Friday night.

Bob Pockrass covers NASCAR for FOX sports. He has spent decades covering motorsports, including over 30 Daytona 500s, with stints at ESPN, Sporting News, NASCAR Scene magazine and The (Daytona Beach) News-Journal. Follow him on Twitter @bobpockrass.